326 BRITISH BIRDS. 



TRYNGITES RUFESCENS. 



BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



(Plate 31.) 



Tringa subriificollis, Vieill. N. Diet. cTIIist. Nat. xxxiv. p. 465 (1819). 



Tringca rufesceiis, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxiv. p. 470 (1819) ; et aucto- 



rum plurimorum — Nuttall, Audubon, {Cassin), (Baird), (Coues), {Ridgway), 



(^Saunders), &.C. 

 Actitis rufescens (Vieill.), Scldegel, Rev. Crit. p. 92 (1844). 

 Actiturus rufescens {Vieill.), Bonap. Rev. Crit. p. 186 (1850). 

 Tringoides rufescens {Vieill.), Gray, Cat. Brit. B. p. 178 (1850). 

 Limicola brevirostris, Licht. Nomencl. Av. p. 92 (1854). 

 Actidurus utevius, Heermmm, Proc. Phil. Acad. vii. p. 179 (1854). 

 Tryngites rufescens {Vieill), Cab. Journ. Orn. 1856, p. 418. 



The first record of the occurrence of the Buff-breasted Sandpiper in the 

 British Islands is that of an example which was shot early in September 

 182G, in the parish of Melbourne^ Cambridgeshire. It was in the company 

 of a party of Dotterel (Yarrell, Trans. Linn. Soc. xvi. p. 109, pi. 11). 

 Since that date eleven examples have been obtained and recorded at diflerent 

 times in England, three have been procured in Ireland, and one in Scotland. 

 Most of these birds have been captured in autumn, but one was kiUed in 



May. 



The Buff-breasted Sandpiper may be regarded as a summer \dsitor to the 

 Arctic regions of America, although it has not been recorded from Green- 

 land. From Alaska its range extends to the Siberian coasts of Behring's 

 Straits ; and jMiddendorff obtained a single example on the southern shores 

 of the Sea of Ochotsk. It passes through the United States on migration, 

 to winter in the West Indies, Mexico, and the northern portions of South 

 America, and has occurred on the Bermudas and on Heligoland. 



In many of its habits the Buff-breasted Sandpiper resembles Bartram^s 

 Sandpiper. Like that bird, in passing through the United States of 

 America on its way to and from its breeding-grounds in the Arctic 

 regions it chooses as its principal line of migration the vast interior 

 prairies. It does not seem to be a very shy bird, and loves to frequent 

 grassy wastes, either near the coast or far in the interior. Like Bartram^s 

 Sandpiper, this bird does not frequent so much the margins of rivers and 

 lakes as the grassy tracts, and is fond of running about the wide waggon- 

 tracks of the prairie which serve as roads. Sometimes it may be seen 

 on places that are almost bare of vegetation, where it runs about in a 



